Lewis Howarth
Overall, Animal Well is a visually striking 2D metroidvania that immerses you in a pixelated world full of mysteries.
Summing up Ravenbound was a challenge because, despite its flaws, the game isn't bad and I did have a good time when it worked as intended. However, it's just badly executed with the lack of missions, explorations, and many frustrating bugs that make Ravenbound hard to recommend. Systemic Reaction are aware of the issues and are actively talking to their community through patch notes to, hopefully, revive this game and make it the fun roguelite it's asking to be.
Severed Steel was fun to play, but I couldn't recommend it at its current price in its present state.
Overall Road 96 really surprised me, as I'm getting older, purely story driven games don't grab my interest as easily.
Cris Tales claims to be a "love letter to classic JRGs" and it has all the elements that make up a great JRPG by bringing back things we've missed about the older classics but it hasn't quite executed them as well as I'd hoped.
Nanotale – Typing Chronicles was a great experience, I've never played a typing game before, so this was a fresh idea to me, and it definitely won't be my last. Fishing Cactus have released 2 games in the Typing Chronicles series, and I hope they don't stop there; I don't think they really pushed the boundaries of what this kind of game can achieve but that only gives me hope for the next instalment.
I've played every game in The Room series so far and I just can't get enough, Fireproof Games have delivered yet another great port built from the ground up for PC. The Room 4: Old Sins is by far the best one to date; the story, gameplay, and atmosphere all tie together perfectly to create a mysterious story and Lovecraftian vibe. I hope for the next instalment they will push the series even further giving us a deeper look into this world and its mysteries.
At a time when multiplayer games are a great way to catch up with friends, Bonkies delivers a chaotic experience you can play with family and friends both old and new to games. Restricting the game to local co-op only was a big loss but if you have 2-4 players to play with or have a good enough connection for Remote Play then I can guarantee a fun time.
I had a good time playing NEOVERSE – especially Hunter Mode – because at the end of the day the aesthetic of a deck builder doesn't matter as it's all about the cards.
Overall, I think PositronX, despite currently being very average, has the framework necessary to become something greater with some added touches and fixes. During early access the game received plenty of updates but perhaps it's time to go back to basics and look to improve those key elements that make a successful FPS game to keep you coming back for more.
Overall Popup Dungeon is a very average game; first launching on Kickstarter April 3rd 2014, it has taken more than 6 years to release but the game and the humour already feels outdated. However Triple.B.Titles have done a great job at creating a papercraft style game and by adding more depth to the combat I could see this game sticking around for a while with the aid of a creative community to take the game to its limits.
Other than a few slight problems I would recommend this to any card game fans out there, it stays true to everything we love about card games while adding its own unique twist.
Mortal Shell is not a perfect game and still requires a bit of polishing but for a game this enjoyable to be developed by such a small team I'm excited to see what they have planned for the future. The potential to make Mortal Shell into a great franchise is definitely there and I hope to see another game in the series or DLC adding diverse bosses and more items to utilise the amazing elements they have introduced with this game.
Over the many hours that I played Parkasaurus, I have to say that I did feel very relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed the simple yet goofy style picking out appropriate hats for all my dinosaurs.
A lot of sports games can take inspiration from some of the good things Super Mega Baseball 3 offers and I hope that Metalhead Software can steal some good ideas for the training and management side of the sport from other games for Super Mega Baseball 4.
Destroy All Humans! was never trying to be a masterpiece back on PS2 and it still isn't one now, however it is a fantastic remake and if you are a fan of the old game I don't see why you wouldn't love this. People have begged for a return to this franchise but I'm not sure a remake was the way to do it; I truly hope they reboot this franchise for newer consoles.
I've found it hard to recommend deck builders recently because I've either thought they were clones of other games, not all that exciting or they have too much going on, however, in Monster Train they have managed to balance replayability and creativity.